Scriptures & Reflection Questions for May 14

Here are the scripture readings for this upcoming Sunday.

Suggestion: Print this and read a different passage each day and think about it (some questions are offered to help stimulate your reflection).

You'll find your experience of worship on Sunday will be intensified.


May 14, 2006
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8

Acts 8:26-40
Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward
the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
(This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was
an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of
the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to
Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his
chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said
to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran
up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do
you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I,
unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and
sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was
reading was this: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and
like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his
mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can
describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the
earth." The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does
the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then
Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he
proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going
along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said,
"Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and
the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord
snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his
way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was
passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all
the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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The Ethiopian eunuch is pretty exotic. He is of a foreign race, nation and religion.
When he responds to Philip's witness, "What is to prevent me from being baptized?" Philip baptizes him. Both Leviticus 21 and Deuteronomy 23 bar a eunuch from being part of the religious community. What is it about the community of the community of the apostles who follow Jesus that would inspire Philip to act in this way?
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Psalm 22:25-31
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
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Put into your own words what it is you believe the psalmist is praising God for.
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1 John 4:7-21
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not
love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed
among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so
that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we
loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning
sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we
also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we
love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in
us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he
has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that
the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God
abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and
they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God
has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in
God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in
this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment,
and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love
because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate
their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a
brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they
have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those
who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
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What does it feel like to you to know yourselves to be loved by God?
Think about the meaning of the words "God is love."
How is it that perfect love casts out fear? Have you ever experienced that?
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John 15:1-8
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes
every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears
fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been
cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I
abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in
me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me
and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do
nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a
branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the
fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father
is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my
disciples.
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Try some imaginative prayer. Picture yourself in France or Italy, in rolling hills where the grapevines are hundreds of years old. Feel the sun and air warming and moving the vines. Imagine their roots deep within the earth, the ground that creates their unique and peculiar quality. See the strong, large base vines, coming up from where they have been planted for centuries. Look at the new branches, each trained along a wire to maximize exposure to sun and wind, carefully pruned to maximize its ability to produce fruit.

Dwell there a while and feel the creative growing energy.
What can you learn from the vineyard?
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Lowell

The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas